Skip to playerSkip to main content
CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago


Lets head down to the community...

Where a few days ago we featured how young children benefit from the football programme that takes place at the Tableland Sports Academy...

The programme is run by former T&T pacer Daniel St. Clair, who is also the man involved in another discipline...

And that happens to be none other than cricket, which he talks about in our final part tonight...

Transcript
00:00 Former Trinidad and Tobago fast bowler Daniel Sinclair continues to do his part by coaching
00:05 youngsters at the Tableland Sports Academy, which is very close to his home.
00:09 Sinclair is quite pleased with the way the program is running, hence the reason for the
00:13 large turnout.
00:14 "Yes, definitely cricket was much easier for me to get into because, as I said, I've played
00:20 for Trinidad and I think it's very important to give back to the community.
00:25 And so far, cricket has been going really well for us as well.
00:28 If you look at our Facebook page, we speak highly of our academy.
00:32 And I think what was said, the parents, when they come here, even the children, they actually
00:38 see that what we said we are actually doing it here at the academy.
00:41 And we just want to set a benchmark so that others can follow."
00:46 Sinclair, who is the president of the Tableland Sports Academy, enjoys working with the children
00:51 and says the chemistry between coach and players is second to none.
00:56 What also impresses him is their work ethic.
00:58 "To be honest, I think I actually enjoy it more than playing because every session, most
01:05 of the time they reach before me.
01:07 And that says a lot.
01:08 And I think that gives me the encouragement to make sure what I am doing is beneficial
01:12 for them.
01:13 And I think thus far, again, no complaints.
01:16 I actually look forward to coming here.
01:19 And even the parents, they come to me and say that their children, they are eager to
01:23 get here on the training morning.
01:25 So again, that in itself shows that we are actually doing something really good at the
01:29 academy and it will be very disappointing, again, if we don't see some of our kids on
01:33 the youth national teams."
01:35 The academy caters for cricket and football, with Sinclair in charge of both disciplines.
01:41 Back in 2016, the cricket program catered for children under 10.
01:46 Due to a need to cater for age groups higher up, an under 23 program is what Sinclair has
01:51 been running at the academy, with all the players actually being under 19.
01:55 "Most of these guys that are going to play for South East, probably two guys will be
02:00 representing South, but that's OK.
02:01 As we said earlier, our aim, one of our aims again is just to better cricket, not just
02:06 in South East, but throughout Trinidad.
02:10 And I think this is a great stepping stone for us to start here."
02:14 There is no turning back for the youngsters who have made progress at the academy.
02:19 One of them happens to be batting all-rounder Rahul Ali, who also bowls medium pace.
02:25 How long have you been with this academy and what sort of improvements have you seen in
02:28 your game?
02:29 "I was at this academy for approximately three months and my fitness and general skill
02:35 performances improved a lot and dramatically because we work at a high performance academy.
02:40 What I'm trying to achieve in the academy is just my general game itself, my general
02:44 game and hoping to reach a more national level some day forward."
02:49 It's left to be seen if any of the players will one day go on to represent Trinidad and
02:53 Tobago and maybe the West Indies.
02:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Be the first to comment
Add your comment